Review
Tested on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2024
Back in 2007 I was obsessed with the first Test Drive Unlimited on PC. There had been nothing like it; speeding around in an open world. It had been a kind of game I'd dreamt for years about. Set in the beautiful island of O'ahu in Hawaii while discovering new roads, finding car outlets and earning enough cash to get your dream machine. I even replayed it entirely on Xbox 360!
It was followed by the problematic and buggy sequel set in Ibiza, which I also played extensively back in 2011 on Xbox 360. It added new ideas but somehow felt less impressive and dated when it arrived.
When TDU Solar Crown was announced I was optimistic but kept my excitement at bay. With stiff competition as Forza Horizon has taken top spot as the best open world racer franchise, it was going to have to impress me. Titles like The Crew: Motorfest have also released solid entries to the genre along the way. My problem with some of them, except the Forza Horizon titles, is a convoluted singleplayer experience blended with multiplayer events and simplistic handling.
Indeed, TDU Solar Crown has already had its share of criticism at launch, and even if the first TDU was a MMO designed online racer, it at least offered a comprehensive and excellent singleplayer experience in addition. Solar Crown launched with its set of problems which made the singleplayer experience bad.
Luckily, this is in the past and it has received many updates since. Fast forward to this year and I spotted it on a tempting sale, and I decided to jump in!
Let's take a spin around Hong Kong and take a look!
To be honest, the whole lifestyle thing in Test Drive Unlimited titles has always come across as a bit cringeworthy. This depiction of an exclusive, rich people's club that love driving around i hyper cars and party. In the first game it was just about yourself expanding houses and garages, in TDU2 they changed into this party vibe and in Solar Crown it's all about a rich, classy lifestyle.
You see, the name Solar Crown is the main luxury hotel. From this hub you have access to your personal hotel room, garage, clothes shop and beauty salon. You can even interact with other players in a bar lounge or the lobby. As you progress the story by increasing your level through races, side jobs, a task list and driving skill combos; you'll be able to join two special clubs. One is Street, focusing on hip street wear and cars, and the other is Sharps. The latter focuses on high-end style with clothing and cars thereafter. I personally far prefer street racing, so went to join that club.
Cleverly as to not overwhelm the player with activities on the map, they gradually add events as your player level increases. Although I felt at times, I could've had more races thrown at me as I sped through most of them and just wanted to level up and gain access to more! On a side note, the map is far too illegible and features what must be the tiniest icons I've ever seen on a map.
Races have multiple checkpoints you need to drive through and are either laps, A to B destinations or domination. The latter gives you points for each checkpoint depending on your position, so you'll need to get ahead of the pack and pass through them to rack up the most total points. It's cool new racing type I have not seen prior to this.
Races are limited to car performance points, but also there are races that require certain models, brands or even the right clothing attire. I'm a little divide on the races that require a certain car, especially if you're not planning on getting that particular one anyhow, as you'll need to shell out your hard-earned cash for one single race.
In addition, there are side missions like doing taxi rides with passengers having certain demands. Like wanting you to drive carefully, put on a certain radio station, wind down the windows or hold a maximum speed. They make way for some unique missions!
Also, car delivery makes a welcome return from the old TDU, allowing you to test expensive cars. Delivery is going from A to B without any time restraints; the trick is holding the car in immaculate condition. It sounds easy to just take it nice and slow in traffic, but with far distances the temptation to really press the gas down on these insane machines makes it tricky not to end up in an accident!
There are also missions making you look at the map, then showing a location you must reach without ever looking at the map again. These are extremely tricky and don't even allow you to enter certain checkpoint to get there. I found them a bit annoying.
Lastly there are investigation missions; requiring you to go undercover and follow cars to see where they are driving. They're a bit stupid in premise and reminiscent on what I found were the most annoying parts of games like Driver back in the day.
Sadly, police are missing from patrolling the streets. This was an element of increased stress and excitement in the first game, but if I recall correctly, it was hardly present in TDU2 and in Solar Crown they're removed entirely. It would've perhaps given the game something unique in comparison with the competition.
Gameplay is surprisingly solid, using the right amount of realism in its arcade approach. Most obvious is the weight to its cars; they feel grounded and heavy when putting speed into corners and the weight shifts over. Rear grip is perhaps a little on the loose side, but it also learns you to respect the sheer power of the. cars. I've tried similar titles like Motorfest, which lack something in the feel of the cars, like everything is too light and floaty, and in comparison, Solar Crown feels grounded, weighty and satisfying to drive.
There're even off-road races which, luckily, are restricted to just gravel roads. They have the right amount of loose grip without being overdone and don't feature completely off-course racing through woodlands either. Just a few gravel road races thrown in to add some variation.
Crashes also look weighty, and typical for the arcade style; cars only take visual damage, limited to dents and scratches most modern racers. Bonus points for being able to control headlights, wipers, and even roll down the windows, it suits the TDU vibe nicely. There's a daytime cycle, with slippery rainstorms coming and going, to add visual variety as well as challenging conditions for the cars.
That said, there are a couple of issues I have with the gameplay. Firstly, the CPU drivers are not exactly fast in corners. They do react to obstacles or if you spin out and block the road, but they slow down way too much in corners. It makes even underpowered cars able to win races, in general the difficulty level was easy. You can adjust the realism level and turn off driving aids, but in general the CPU drivers are a bit slow.
In addition, there's something odd about taking corners at low speed, necessary to turn completely around or get into a tight alleyway; the turning radius feels incredibly large. It's as if the cars can't properly take a sharp corner at low speed, I guess there's some balance down towards how they react in speed, but its feels odd.
Visually, Solar Crown is generally solid and can look genuinely pretty as I've shown with the screenshots here! However, it's more of a mixed bag overall compared to the high standard of recent Forza Horizon titles in motion. It just doesn't reach up to the sheer variety of FH's maps, alternating biomes across them or their high amount of smaller detail.
The star of the show here is without doubt the actual city design of Hong Kong. It has an impressive number of streets and buildings to depict a very convincing and large city. The dynamic daytime offers solid use of lighting, and the city looks great in night races with neon lights. With this number of buildings, roads and raised highways to speed under, it really an urban environment in great fashion. On the outskirts and off-road, however, it looks less interesting and sterile.
Traffic density and lack of people is obvious, something which plagues open world racers in general. It's not the kind of living world we see in Grand Theft Auto titles; it's focused on the racing aspect after all. Somehow though, Solar Crown just comes off as more sterile looking than Forza Horizon, I think it boils down to the complete lack of people in the city, except inside the clubs and main hotel. FH at least has stadiums and festival areas with crowds in them.
While the total amount of car models is quite low, they're modelled in nice detail. They're restricted to with minimal damage effects, basically dents and scratches, but there's an engaging cockpit view. Driving inside the car the camera subtly focuses the camera towards where the car is pointing in corners.
I guess PC players can modify the graphics to their liking, but on console we're stuck with two options: performance and graphics. The latter offers 1440p@30fps with increased detail on reflections and surfaces. The performance mode resides at a rather barebones effort of 1080p@60fps, resulting in a manageable but blurrier affair. For responsiveness in racers, it's the best mode to play in, but it sacrifices a lot of resolution and reflection effects.
Although the reflections across both modes are quite rough, in performance mode they're incredibly so on car bodies with an extremely blocky appearance. It becomes very apparent when the camera gets close to the car body, like in the bonnet view.
Additionally, there are non-working rear view mirrors. That's right, they're so ugly and blocky that they don't show anything but a few squares being moved about. They simply don't work as intended and an embarrassing oversight that has not been fixed so long after launch, regardless of graphics mode.
Otherwise, I'm impressed by the detail level of Hong Kong with good lighting, combined with lots of greenery, it helps build a picture of a pretty looking city in sunsets and at night. They've put a lot of work into the dense urban areas.
Car sounds are well done, with deep engine sounds, exhaust sputters and the right variety compared to the model you choose. On a strange note, for surround sound users; the engine sounds are but on the back speakers, regardless of what camera angle you use or if it's a rear engine car or not. There're radio channels for various music genres, but in general I found the soundtrack highly forgettable and full of unknown, to me at least, songs.
Overall, I've been happy with what Solar Crown offers as a singleplayer experience. Although it had issues at launch, the package on offer now is completely unbothered by the online aspect. You can just enjoy your own adventure if you wish to stay away from competing with others.
For those wanting to get into online racing though, it is just like how the original TDU offered a MMO experience with cars and player avatars included in your world. How busy the servers are, especially now that Forza Horizon 6 is out, I'm not sure.
There's a fair bit of race type variety and tasks to play with although it never gets close to what Forza Horizon titles offer. Although it has been increased since launch, I still feel the high-level requirement and insane prices of the fastest cars is a bit of a sluggish grind.
That said, it makes you appreciate each car you buy and the slow addition of new events on the map forces the player to take on side-missions. This might not suit impatient players only looking for plain races, but I feel a weakness with Forza Horizon is addressed here; they limit the access to cars, money and events, as to not completely down the player in them and make progression less satisfying.
It even manages to bring back nostalgia to the first TDU, especially the car delivery missions and the chatty GPS voice. There's something satisfying about having a map to drive on real-life roads, speeding about in cool cars you enter a shop to buy. Each car feels precious and they cost a large amount of money, sometimes a little too much of a grind, forcing you to take decisions on which models you wish to purchase. Forza games tend to throw too many free cars at you, resulting with lots of them never really being driven at all.
With an incredibly stiff competition now that Forza Horizon 6 is out, which incidentally also has a large city to drive in, and being visually rough around the edges with resolution and reflections, it's still a very decent racing package set in a great looking Hong Kong cityscape.
So, if you've driven the Forza Horizon titles and are on the lookout for something similar, you should give Solar Crown a chance. It might be less flashy and more barebones when it comes to content, but it's fun racer with that high end, car purchase lifestyle woven in. Plus, it doesn't convolute your experience with confusing enemies and online aspects like Motorfest.
